I will be the first to admit when success criteria became popular, I did not understand why we needed this as we had rubrics. I kept saying “this is just fad it too shall pass.” How naive I was!
Now, I actually really enjoy using a mixture of both teacher-created success criteria and co-created success criteria (teacher/student brainstorm together) depending on the topic etc.
Here are five reasons why I use success criteria in my daily teaching practice.
- It gives students a sense of ownership and control over their learning and assessment if you co-create and use it to assess their work.
- It clearly outlines the difference between an A and a B or Level 4 and 3.
- It helps students understand an assignment and think through the expectations before they start to create something. I feel awful when students bring me an incorrect assignment because they have not read the assignment sheet, success criteria or rubric correctly.
- It is written in student and parent-friendly language. No more teacher jargon-filled rubrics (I still use rubrics, but in combination with success criteria or I make my success criteria into rubrics).
- Success criteria can be written up in a large format on chart paper, which makes it easy for students to read and reference during their assignment creation process. Could you image writing a rubric up on chart paper? My printing is just not that neat!
I usually find the student with the neatest printing to help write my anchor charts and success criteria.
Bump It Up Board Headers: This Bump It Up Board header set is a strategy used to increase student performance. It can be applied to any subject level.
Student’s work is compared against a Level 1 – Level 4 assessment scale. Students use this information to improve their work before submission to the teacher. This is a great self-editing, proofreading and peer-editing strategy. Find this resource on Shopify CAD and Teachers Pay Teachers USD.